Creatively promoting a product that has been on the market for decades isn’t always an easy task. So how do you take a decade old product like potato chips and make them new and exciting? America’s favorite potato chip brand has taken to modern and engaging techniques to raise brand awareness and increase sales. Lay’s is a company that has tapped into social media and the consumer market that goes along with it in order to develop new products. This gave the consumers the chance to decide what they want to snack on!
Consumer Participation
Lay’s is most noted for their delicious potato chips among other snack products however, they have taken to social media to help not only determine flavors but help put them on the market for purchase. In July 2012, the Lay’s brand launched its first “Do Us A Flavor” contest in the U.S. This contest allows the consumers to create the flavors. Not only is it a creative way to keep everyone interested in a product that has been around for decades, but it also reached target markets of all ages. Fans were asked to submit a flavor via Facebook, Twitter, text, or YouTube that they want to see in potato chips. They pick the name, up to three key ingredients, and the style of chip. From there everyone votes through social media channels for their favorite flavors and the top 4 are chosen as finalists. The final flavors are then actually created and sold nationwide for customers to try out.
So how exactly does this help their marketing efforts? Well for starters it allows the consumers to explore the brand. We experience all these different brands on a daily basis whether we are consuming or using products yet there is no incentive for us to interact with them on social media. These social media campaigns give consumers a reason to engage with the brand beyond just the product that is being sold. Lay’s does this by encouraging consumers to vote through their personal social media pages.
Greater Brand Loyalty
Secondly, it gives people a reason to get invested and follow everything your company does. With this level of engagement, customers feel as though they are a part of the company, and are more inclined to vouch for the brand and hope for its success. Everyone who votes for a flavor, or makes a submission or knows someone who made a submission is now invested in the campaign, and as a result, in Frito-Lay. Once that type of customer loyalty is achieved, the benefits carry far beyond the campaign because now people care not only about Lay’s chips, but also about Frito-Lay as a brand.
Their most recent campaign called “Flavor Swap” is a voting-based contest where the consumers decide the fate of eight potato chip flavors. A lot of pressure right? Four of the flavors already exist while four flavors are completely new. This potato chip battle takes place by having consumers vote for the flavor they want to see on the market.
These types of interactive marketing campaigns are extremely engaging to consumers considering 86.75% of the United States population uses the internet. And since Frito-Lay Inc, a division of PepsiCo, controls 60% of the snack industry market share, it’s a dominant force and brand. These types of campaigns heavily add to their brand awareness while making them relatable to the current generation.
To make this campaign twitter interactive, Lay’s tapped into our inner love for emoji characters by having followers guess the flavors before they were announced. Since the voting takes places on a different website, they still made the campaign interactive on twitter.
Next time you open a bag of Lay’s chips, check them out on social media and be a part of their brand for years to come. Even better, use these tips to increase your brand’s social presence. Need help coming up with an equally awesome social media campaign? We can help!